As a Cyrenaic philosopher, he taught that the goal of life was to obtain joy and avoid grief, and that the former resulted from knowledge, and the latter from ignorance.
[3] He heard the lectures of a number of philosophers beside Aristippus; such as Anniceris, and Dionysius the dialectician,[4] Zeno of Citium, and Pyrrho.
Of his subsequent history there is no connected account; but the anecdotes of him show that he was at Athens, where he narrowly escaped a trial, perhaps for impiety.
[citation needed] The account of Amphicrates of Athens cited by Diogenes Laërtius,[8] that he was condemned to drink hemlock and so died, is doubtless an error.
He taught that the great end of human life is to obtain joy and avoid grief, and that the former resulted from knowledge, and the latter from ignorance.
He taught that there was nothing naturally disgraceful in theft, adultery, or sacrilege if one ignored public opinion, which had been formed by the consent of fools.
"He did away with all opinions respecting the Gods," says Laërtius,[17] but some critics doubt whether he was absolutely an atheist, or simply denied the existence of the deities of popular belief.
she replied I, Theodorus, am that person, but do I appear to you to have come to a wrong decision, if I devote that time to philosophy, which I otherwise should have spent at the loom?